Penguindrum Collection 1 [Blu-ray]

Penguins, apples, little sisters, musicals, aquariums, terrorists, magical girl transformation scenes, teddy bears, frogs, destiny, a mysterious diary, numerous flashbacks, train rides, rabbit twins, talking eels and sea otters, amnesia bullets, stalkers, attempted rape, reincarnation, weird penguin hats, and numerous other random terms could be used to describe this show. This is an extremely random and weird show, but is definitely one of the few psychological and philosophical anime of the twenty first century, which is a positive thing.The anime starts out with a loving family of brothers, Shōma Takakura (blue hair) and Kanba Takakura (red hair) and a cute little sister, Himari Takakura. They go to the aquarium, but then Himari collapses and is pronounced dead. She immediately comes back to life due to the strange penguin hat she was wearing. She claims that the two brothers must find something called the Penguindrum so she will remain alive. The three of them are assisted by three cute little penguins that only they can see. On their mission, the brothers meet a girl named Ringo Oginome, who exhibits some strange behavior like stalking their homeroom teacher and wanting her sister's desires to come to fruition by any means necessary.The first half of the series is somewhat lighthearted and comical in appearance, but the second half is a lot darker and starts answering the viewer's many questions throughout the series. Trying to explain any more of the series is just ludicrous because of the many plot devices and strange occurrences in the show. To summarize, the show is about penguins and apples at its core. It is also the latest anime from Kunihiko Ikuhara, the director of Revolutionary Girl Utena, which is also a very good anime; maybe even better than this show. Both shows have similar psychological and philosophical themes, and both feature pink haired characters.This series is licensed by Sentai Filmworks and comes in a 3 disc set. There are no real special features, just like most Sentai anime. Notably, the English dub is fine for the main characters, but a lot of the minor characters sound like they did not even try to cast them properly. The teacher character sounds extraordinarily plain and dull for the first half of the series, but in the second half, he is voiced by someone else, and has a much deeper voice, which is appropriate for the second half's content. The animation for this anime is very nice and the music is really good. The second half has at least seven different closing theme songs, which is incredible for only 12 episodes.

I cannot recommend this show enough. It's a show that gets a reputation of being overwrought with wild surreal imagery. This is a little true. Of course it has surreal imagery considering Kunihiku Ikuhara directed it (Revolutionary Girl Utena, watch that too!) and provides a unique eye to the perspective of storytelling and imagery. The main thing to take away from this show as a viewer, is how impressive the relationships are developed and depicted. I wholeheartedly disagree with those reviews saying this show has shallow character development. I believe that there are details in the beautiful animation and backgrounds of this show that make this family of characters feel very real to one another. There is history there and you have to hang in there before the secrets and truths start being revealed. But once they do, and you go back and realize some of the subtle hints that had been there from the first episode, you will truly appreciate the story. Amazing voice work, incredibly well done soundtrack (possibly one of the best of the past decade for anime series), and a pretty bold story that starts of simplistic and colorful but soon delves into quite meaningful discussion on bigger themes that take into territory belonging to a great drama.

This is one of the most bizarre and confusing animes I have ever witnessed. However, it is entertaining and hooks you until you finish it and try to understand what it's all about. You may want to watch it a second time after finishing it once though, it helps make sense of a few things. A wonderful animation and sound quality make it even more enjoyable. If you buy this and don't like it, try finishing it with the next volume. It's either a hit or miss anime, I decided to be positive and enjoyed it and interpreted my way. Check it out if you like unique, ​confusing anime.

This show is great and I really love the ost. It's nicely paced and we'll thought out. It really picks up in the second half (second part of bluerays). But the quality doesn't drop. I'm glad to have watched it.

Penguin Drum is simply something so unique and fantastic that trying to put why it's awesome into words just doesn't work.Granted it's not something for everybody, but I think that's because people don't look through what's happening on screen.That's because this series is very philosophical but you don't need to understand every concept and get every point to love it, at its heart Penguin Drum is a story of love, family, bonds and DESTINY!! (when you watch the show you'll get why I capitalized it).

Penguindrum is an amazing series. It is very unique and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys mystery/slice of life anime.

Also a good all also delivery goodsHas been re-purchase

it's odd, and we're interested but hoping the second set clears up some questions.

blu ray, a good series too

「輪るピングドラム」北米盤。1-12話収録の2枚組。知っての通り、前半は8話くらいまでマンネリ展開が続くのですが、その後の伏線が撒かれ、9話からシリアスな展開になってきます。Sentai Filmworks製の北米盤ブルーレイはいくつか買っていますが、いずれも日本の機器で問題なく見られました。2013/3/12に待望の 2巻 が発売され、すでに日本のアマでも取り扱うようになっています。テレビで観ていた人は2巻だけ買ってもよいかもしれません。画質は国内盤に比べると今ひとつかもしれませが、「生存戦略」場面で放映ではかすれていたところもきれいに見えます。特典はノンテロップOP、ED、番宣のみ。オーディオコメンタリー、サウンドトラック、冊子などはありません。他のディスクにもよくありますが、英字はメニューでは消えないようになっていて、プレーヤーのボタンで消します。ボタンは機種により違います。OP、EDは日本語のオリジナルのままで、最後に英語版テロップが別に流れます。珍しいですね。 2巻

一般的な国内プレイヤーで再生出来ます（私の再生環境は数年前のSONYの最廉価プレイヤー『BDR-S1200』）。英語音声/字幕無しと、日本語音声/英語字幕付きの選択肢しかありませんが、本編が始まってからリモコンなどで字幕を《切》にすれば、普通に字幕無しで鑑賞する事が出来ます。始まりが妹の死というショッキングかつ陰鬱な出来事で、その後も怒涛のような謎の多さを残しながら回を重ねます。更には、サイコな女の子の行動に焦点が当てられ続けるので、ぶっちゃけ見る人によっては「なんじゃこりゃ？」で一刀両断されかねない作品です。ですが、その点さえ気にならなければ、徐々に加速して行く物語に釘付けになり、序盤からは考えられないような展開を見せ始めます。なお、本商品は、物語の非常～に気になる所で終わっちゃうので、その点ご注意をｗ

このディスクは1080i 29.97fpsです。数日前に私が購入したときには、商品説明に1080pと記述があったと思うのですが、消去されたみたいです。最近、1080pのものが多いので、それだけ、ちょっと残です。パッケージにも1080pと書かれていますが、これは誤記です。

国内BDプレイヤーで見ることができますが、字幕の選択が英語1と英語２ですなので字幕を消すことができません。